Court summonses rise after council tax benefit cuts, Labour says

Hundreds of thousands of people have been taken to court in England for non-payment of council tax owing to benefit changes, according to the Labour Party.

Labour said 112 English councils had reported issuing 156,000 court summonses since April to people paying more tax as a result of the changes.

That meant 450,000 individuals may have been taken to court across the whole of England in six months, it claimed.

Mike Sergeant reports.